Deferred Action Approved for Nearly 4,600 Young Undocumented

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals numbers for the first two months of the program. In the first two months that Deferred Action applications were accepted for processing, the USCIS approved 4600 applications. Since August 15, approximately 180,000 applications were received by the USCIS. Currently, 158,000 applications are being reviewed for criminal history, and 6,500 are in the final review stages.

DHS is predicting that as this process moves forward, the average processing time for DACA applications will be between four and six months. That projected processing time means that many applicants will not even be considered until after the Presidential Inauguration in January. With Governor Romney promising to halt the DACA program if he were to be elected, the projected processing time is unsettling news to immigrant rights’ groups and current applicants.